The present invention relates to the audio content systems. More specifically, one embodiment of the invention provides access to personalized audio content through a device with browsing capabilities.
Initially, cellular telephones were client devices that only connected to a voice network. Thus, a user of a cellular telephone (xe2x80x9ccell phonexe2x80x9d, for short) could use the device to connect to a voice network, such as the public switched telephone network (xe2x80x9cPSTNxe2x80x9d), to make a circuit connection between the cell phone and another telephone or telephone device. Once the connection was made the two devices would communicate using voice band signals. Where the two devices were in use by people having conversations, the voice band signals would simply be the electrical representation of the conversants speaking. In other cases, one of the devices was a machine, such as a computing device, a voice mail system, and automated response unit (xe2x80x9cARUxe2x80x9d, also often referred to as a xe2x80x9ctouch-tone (TM) response systemxe2x80x9d), or voice response unit (xe2x80x9cVRUxe2x80x9d) responsive to voice inputs.
Recently, with the increasing use of the Internet, and more specifically the hyperlinked collection of documents (often referred to as xe2x80x9cpagesxe2x80x9d) known as xe2x80x9cthe World Wide Webxe2x80x9d (xe2x80x9cWWWxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cthe Webxe2x80x9d, for short), newer cell phones often include a Web client (often called a xe2x80x9cbrowserxe2x80x9d) that provides the user of the cell phone access to the Web. In the case of wireless access to the Web, of which a cell phone is but one example, there may be some limits on the data network usage, such as a limited display and a limited bandwidth allocated to each device. Thus, in the common usage of the terms, a cell phone user might be said to be using the cell phone to browse Web pages on the wireless web.
As used herein, xe2x80x9cwireless webxe2x80x9d refers to the Web generally, but with the understanding that some modifications might be made to some of the documents in the collection so that the documents are more easily handled in the wireless environment. Examples of modifications include limitations on the class or number of documents that are accessible via the wireless device, modifications to reduce the number of bits required the represent the document, or modifications to make the document more readable on a smaller display typical of a wireless access device. One simplified approach to wireless web pages is to take existing Web pages containing high-bandwidth components such as image and audio content and omitting all but the text content of the pages. However, it should be understood that such modifications are not a requirement of a set of documents available over a wireless web.
The Internet is a packet-switched network, whereas the PSTN is a circuit switched network. Nonetheless, newer cell phones can provide both types of connections, as the communications channel between the cell phone and the stationary cell transceiver that is the cell phone""s point of contact is a digital channel. Thus, voice is digitized in the cell phone and is transmitted along with any data packet traffic along the channel between the cell phone and the transceiver. How the data and voice are separated at the transceiver, or further into the cellular telephone service network, is well known and need not be further described herein. From the perspective of the cell phone, there is a voice network into which a voice circuit can be established and a data network that will accept data packets and return data packets directed at the cell phone. Unless otherwise indicated, it should be understood that references herein to cell phones might also apply to any other device that provides wireless access to a voice network and to a data network.
Typically, the voice connection and the data connection in a wireless access device are separate, such that both connections cannot be used at once, either because of bandwidth constraints or because a wireless service provider might choose, for billing or other reasons, not to allow simultaneous use of both connections. However, many devices have a capability to switch a user from a data connection to a voice connection more or less seamlessly. For example, with some cell phones, the user can use a wireless browser to navigate among wireless web pages.
Navigation from page to page is typically done using links, where one page contains links to other pages and the user xe2x80x9cmovesxe2x80x9d from the one page to another page by selecting (e.g., clicking on) on the one page a link to the other page. Some pages may have links not to other pages, but to a voice channel. Instead of the link containing a uniform reference locator (xe2x80x9cURLxe2x80x9d) referencing another page, the link contains a reference to a telephone number. An example of where this might be useful is where the browser aspect of the cell phone is used to find a telephone number and then dial that telephone number. If a set of wireless web pages were set up to present restaurant choices, for example, the pages might include a starting page that leads to a tree of choices that a user could navigate down to reach a leaf page of the tree where the leaf page is for a specific restaurant. If that leaf page contained a link that included a telephone number, the user could just select the link and be connected to the selected restaurant.
Since the wireless device does not typically keep both the data connection and the voice connection open at the same time, the wireless device would typically have storage that would store the telephone number from the link. To effect this, once the user selects a link that refers to a desired voice connection (i.e., a telephone number of the desired called party), the wireless device stores the telephone number, closes the data connection, and then sets up a voice connection using the stored telephone number. From the user""s perspective, the user would use the wireless device to navigate a menu of pages and select a party to call, and then be connected, via a voice connection, to the called party referenced in the link. At that point, the voice connection would be active and the data connection would not be, however it should be understood that the system could operate similarly in a wireless network that allowed simultaneous use of the data and voice connections.
Some cellular telephone service providers allow for customization, whereby the user can program their wireless device to speed dial telephone numbers and additional digits that are interpreted by a device that answers the call, such as the user""s voice mail system. Some cellular telephone service providers also allow for customization of the wireless web pages accessible to the user. For example, a user might set up pages containing links to commonly used telephone numbers of that user.
In a wireless web system according to one embodiment of the present invention, users navigate web pages that include links to audio content where the pages are provided over a data connection and the audio content is provided over a voice connection. In a specific implementation, an audio content reference generator generates a reference to a portion of static audio content and that audio content reference is provided to the user""s wireless web client in the form of a link on a wireless web page, or other page retrieved by the wireless web device over the data connection. The audio content reference and a telephone number of an audio server form the link on the wireless web page, so that when a user selects that link, the wireless device establishes a voice connection to the audio server using the telephone number and then provides the audio server with the audio content reference so that the user hears the specifically referenced audio content over the voice channel.
The audio content reference can be provided to the audio server in many different ways. For example, the audio content reference might be provided to the telephone network as an extension and the audio server might have caller-ID capability that would receive an apparent extension number from the telephone company, with the audio server knowing that a received caller-ID extension should be interpreted as an audio content reference. In another approach, the calling wireless device might dial the telephone number, wait for the voice circuit connection to be fully established and then transmit the audio content reference as a series of tones to an audio server that is programmed to listen for tones when a connection is established and the interpret those tones as an audio content reference. In a third approach, the audio content reference may be stored on the server side and be associated with a device identifier when the user browses to the page that initiates the telephony call. In this situation, the telephony system uses the device identifier and the stored server side information to directly associate the audio content reference with the incoming call.
The actual audio content provided by the audio content server in response to a reference could be of several forms. One form is static content, such as a recording of movie times, or connecting the user directly to voice menus deep within a voice menu structure without the user having to manually navigate the voice menu structure. Another form is dynamic content, such as an audio listing of the user""s new voice mail messages. Yet another form is interactive content, where the particular audio played for the user depends on further inputs provided by the user. Still another form of content is live content. An example of live content might be where the audio content reference is interpreted by the audio server as a request to connect the caller with an internal voice connection, as might be used where the user navigates a menu of help pages and selects a link representing a particular technical problem, resulting in the user""s wireless device dialing a telephone number for a help desk audio server that then interprets the provided audio content reference as a request to route the call to a system or person that can handle the help request.
A further understanding of the nature and the advantages of the inventions disclosed herein may be realized by reference of the remaining portions of the specification and the attached drawings.